Summary: Publisher Summary 1 Focusing on Sexton's poems rather than on the life she led, this fresh critique of her work restarts the debate about her poetry 30 years after her death. McGowan argues that Sexton's poetry collections develop a three-way investigation into the possibilities of language to convey an individual's response to her own existence, to the project of defining love (by physical, human, and divine standards) and to the purpose of the aesthetic in our understanding of these entities. He charts the chronological development of Sexton's poetic aesthetic and provides a new interpretation of this major poet's work.   Publisher Summary 2 Restarts the debate about Sexton's poetry by refocusing the discussion on her work rather than her life.   Publisher Summary 3 McGowan (American literature, Goldsmiths' College, U. of London) approaches Sexton and her peers as complex and powerful creators of a special language, rather than players in a series of literary events sometimes called "poetry." He is careful to catch inferences in their work to the contexts of shifting social values, increasingly totalitarian capitalism, and the eradication of emotional and spiritual structure that was the America of Sexton's day. However, he also closely examines the trauma that surrounded Sexton, the conflicting conditions that constituted her being, and the 30 years of critical confusion about the simple word "I" that has followed since her death. Annotation 漏2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)